The NFLPA's board of representatives selected Winston, 30, an eight-year veteran tackle who is currently a free agent, as their highest-ranking player leader over fellow nominees Benjamin Watson and Ryan Clark in a series of votes Wednesday at the union's annual meetings.

Watson remains on the executive committee, along with fellow holdovers Matt Hasselbeck and Brian Waters and newcomers Clark, Jay Feely, Scott Wells, Adam Vinatieri, Zak DeOssie, Lorenzo Alexander and Mark Herzlich, who all were voted in Wednesday as well.

In an interview with USA TODAY Sports hours after the elections, with Watson at his side, Winston discussed a variety of issues, including the collective-bargaining agreement, workplace rules, medical care, HGH testing, expanding the playoffs, agent regulation and what will happen when executive director DeMaurice Smith is up for reelection in 2015.

USA TODAY Sports: This was the largest player leadership turnover the union has ever had, with the presidency and seven of 10 other spots on the executive committee changing hands. How do you anticipate that will shape the union dynamic going forward?

Winston: I think it's great anytime to interject some new blood. In a lot of ways, it was needed. Guys kind of run their course, where they were looking to get on to what they were doing, and these guys that have come on are really passionate guys. I'm a big fan (of the fact) this is an active players' board and these are guys that are actively involved still with the NFL, and I think that's important, too, because they're right in the thick of it. We added some awesome guys to the EC that are dedicated, that are smart and that are passionate. I think, with those three qualities, you're not going to really go wrong.

USA TODAY Sports: What did you say to the board before the election?

Winston: More than anything, I tried to just let them know of my passion and my commitment to this organization. I've been part of the PA now for the vast majority of my career. I felt like it was time to kind of move away from the CBA negotiations and get to not just maximizing the deal for all the players, but also trying to reform some of the things we do and not getting stuck in the status quo. I really think the resolution process is one of the important things that we do. We've got to be the responsible ones. We've got to take the bull by the horns, and we've got to lead now. We've got to point guys in the right direction. There are so many guys in this business, in this organization that are really passionate about some things, and we've got to find out what those passions are and say, 'Here's your resources – go do it.' Because whether it's been health and safety, with Sean Morey way back in the day, to a wide variety of issues, it's been player-led. I think that's something that's awesome about this organization. The change that you've seen in the NFL over the course of however long you want to look at it – it's because of this union. It's because of the players. And whether we're in a time of quote-unquote "war" or not, we need to continue to push for that change and not accept the status quo.

USA TODAY Sports: There are seven years left of the collective-bargaining agreement, which has been intensely debated in terms of whether players got a big enough share of revenues. What is your personal feeling about the CBA as a whole and specifically financially?

Winston: When we look down the road, we're going to be really happy with it. We changed the formula on how we calculate the salary cap. We moved to a formula where the owners can take advantage of a lot of (expense) credits to now tying a horse to all the revenue. Now we're going to see our piece of the pie, and at the end of the day, if the NFL's not growing, then the salary cap's not going to grow and maybe we're going to need to somehow readjust that. But we made the bet largely on history, of knowing how the NFL grows and how fast it grows, that we want to be a part of that. We want to be a partner in that pie growing, and I think they're going to grow it. We had one stalled year over the course of it. You look forward to some of the projections – it's only going to get bigger. I think that's good for the players. But that CBA wasn't just about the salary cap. It was so much about resisting changes to the benefits guys had fought for for 40 years. It was making health and safety a priority and setting working standards for practices, for returning to play, for just the way guys are treated when they're hurt and trying to change that stigma about not just concussions, but all types of injuries. Guys are now reporting injuries. Guys are getting treatment for injuries on a wider range, and I think that's important – not just now, but it's important for 30 years from now, for 40 years from now, that our guys live the lives that they should be living and not suffering from traumatic brain injuries or not suffering from knees and ankles and elbows that don't function anymore.

USA TODAY Sports: There's an idea I've heard from reps that even if you support the CBA, you should view this as seven years to get ready for the next fight. Is that a fair assessment?

Winston: Of course, because if we weren't, we'd just be accepting the status quo. That's the one thing I don't think I'm going to stand for, and these guys on the EC aren't interested in that, because if they were, they wouldn't be doing this. They ran for their spots and I ran for my spot to effect some change. This union has always been about fighting. It won't change. And players have always been about getting to what's fair, whether it's way back in the day – "socks and jocks" – or in 1993 where it was about free agency. While we might not have a quote-unquote "labor war" coming up to it, there's always preparations going on. The one thing that I will refuse to do is to leave things undone for the group ahead of us. In a lot of ways, we had a short amount of time to get ready for one of the nastiest (labor disputes) and the first lockout ever (in 2011). I'm not going to leave that until two or three years from now. We've got to start doing things now. We've taken steps already and we will continue to take steps to make sure that whoever takes this next and starts running this ball down the field, that they weren't moved backwards. We've got to pick up that torch and carry it as far as we can.

USA TODAY Sports: What are the steps you've taken?

Winston: I'm not going to get too far into the resolutions that we passed, but I think we took some positive steps today. We're going to look to maintaining our war chest and continuing to grow that every possible way we can. But I also think it has to do with the education of players, whether it's just the history of this or financial literacy and making sure guys understand the amount of wealth they're getting and how to control that and how to make that help them and not make it a hindrance but make it something that's just an incredible head start in life. There's so many aspects that we can get into as far as helping guys, and we've got to figure out a way to get to them all. We've got to figure out a way to help guys where they're not broke in three years when they get out of the league, that they're not mentally hurt, they're not physically hurt when they get out of the league, and if they are, there's mechanisms in place that will benefit them (and) they knew about already.

USA TODAY Sports: Given the situations in Miami Dolphins situation and the MRSA outbreak with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as well, what are your priorities in terms of workplace rules and overall workplace safety?

Winston: It's a continuous fight. Whether we're in peacetime or whatever you want to call it, these issues come up every year. If I would have asked you last year, we wouldn't even have known about (situations like that). We've got to find a way to figure those out. I think for us we've got to continue to push the envelope and find out, OK, what can come up and how do we curtail that before it gets there? But there's got to be standard practices. We can't let happen what happened in Miami, and in a lot of ways, what happened in Tampa can be just as devastating. You've got a kicker (Lawrence Tynes) that's on an IV drip I think through his heart for – I don't even know if he's off of it yet. My biggest problem was that it should have been avoided and it could've been avoided by some standard, obvious practices that weren't in place.

USA TODAY Sports: You'll be part of the union leadership that meets with NFL officials next month to discuss workplace rules. Do there need to be one standardized set of rules across the league?

Winston: Of course. We need to be treated like the professionals that we are, and of course, to a certain extent, that needs to be reciprocated. For me, it's a continuation of what we set up with the practices, what we set up with contact (limitations), how we're (not) going to do two-a-days, how professionals are going to be treated. That just is a continuation into the locker room now of the infectious diseases. That's the standard. Towels should be washed a certain way. Locker rooms should be disinfected a certain way. And it angers me in a lot of ways that these aren't already done, that this isn't already happening. We're in 2014, where we can prevent a lot of these. It's one thing what happens with something that you didn't know or you couldn't prevent or you weren't sure about it. But to know that something like MRSA's been around as long as it has and how it's affected guys – I know a guy that played 10 years ago that almost got half of his thigh taken off because of MRSA. That's something that's real. It shouldn't happen. There's got to be some standard protocol for preventing all of that.

Winston: That's a question that's very team-to-team. You see some places around the league and there is some decent medical care. But there's also some places where we've had to push the league to get trainers out, to get medical doctors out, because they weren't living up to their obligation. That's another area where it angers me that the team wouldn't want to do that, that the team wouldn't want to have the best possible guy in there – whether it's a trainer, whether it's a doctor – caring for their players, caring for the guys that they're paying to try to win. If they want to win, it always bothers me that there are teams out there that would rather take the easy way out, that would rather take the shortcut, instead of doing things the right way and doing things the best they can. That's just another example of, as leaders, as a union, we're going to have to push the league to be better and it's not OK. We know from being a part of this that – whether you want to call it "peacetime" or "wartime" or whatever – there's always a fight to be had and there's always a struggle to be pushed.

USA TODAY Sports: The drug-testing policy has been on hold since the CBA was signed in August 2011. There is still no testing for human growth hormone. Where does that rank in terms of priorities and what do you hope happens with HGH testing as part of a comprehensive drug policy?

Winston: You talk to any player around the league – we want a comprehensive HGH policy in place. But I think now it's up to Commissioner (Roger) Goodell. We've done all we're going to do as far as I'm concerned about it. It's his bill to sign. If he wants to put it in place, then he can put it in place. If he's going to continue to hold it on his desk, then he's going to do that. But as far as I'm concerned, we've gone as far as we should go with this. We're not going any further, and I think now, the choice is his, whether he wants to make HGH testing happen in the NFL or not.

USA TODAY Sports: So, there will be no pending on the union's part as far as the main sticking point – the commissioner's authority in appeals that don't involve a positive test?

Winston: I honestly need to look more (into it). But as far as what I know now, I don't see any way we'll move on it, in my opinion.

USA TODAY Sports: What about expanding the playoff field to 14 teams or perhaps even revisiting expanding the regular-season schedule from 16 to 18 games?

Winston: A lot of that's theory. I can tell you 16 to 18's dead in the water. I won't let it happen. I don't think any of these other guys are going to let it happen. It's a safety issue. Now, if you're start talking about playoff games, how is that structured? How is that worked out? What are we talking about here? How's that other team getting in? I think it goes to a broad structure and it speaks differently than we're talking about having 32 teams play two more games apiece. That's a very microscopic view of one more playoff team (per conference), and that's something that will be looked at and looked at hard by the players because there are some guys that might want it. But if it's some broad stroke, then we're probably not going to go for it.

USA TODAY Sports: DeMaurice Smith has spoken about agent regulation as an emphasis going forward. There were six agents disciplined in 2013, with appeals on two others pending. There also have been some agents voicing their frustrating about their lack of say on union and collective-bargaining issues. What do you think should be the role of agents in NFLPA business?

Winston: I've been on the CARD committee (Committee on Agent Regulation and Discipline) the last year, and I can tell you it's a priority for me to make sure that every agent that's not in it for the right reasons is no longer part of this union. The agents work for us. They are agents of the union, agents of the players, not any other way around. That's first and foremost. Those guys (who are in it for the wrong reasons) aren't welcome, and we're going to straighten out the rules, the penalties, that if they're making a large amount of infractions, that they're gone and they're not welcome back. But that's a small amount of those guys, and I completely agree with the fact that we need to continue to reach out. We did a small agent meeting in Indy this past year of (agents) that hold a good amount (of clients) and it was a good, productive meeting. They got to voice a lot of their opinions, a lot of what they are seeing, and in my opinion – this is solely my opinion – they're kind of soldiers in this, too. They're boots on the ground. They're hearing directly from teams. They have probably more access to general managers and the teams than most of us do in the negotiating sense. They're going to know a lot of things, and I think there's a lot of useful knowledge from them. But we're going to engage them. I'm going to engage them. I'm going to expect them to engage us, and I'm going to expect for them to help us. They don't work for anybody but the NFLPA, and I think they need to understand that. But at the same time, the door's open. My phone's always available to them, and if they've got some sort of suggestion or they see something that needs to be fixed, then we're all ears, because I know they see things from a unique perspective and we need to understand that and we need to give them that due. A lot of them have been here for a long time and know a lot about the salary cap, know a lot of the game, know a lot about players and I think some of them genuinely want to help and I want them to help us.

USA TODAY Sports: What are your biggest concerns with those agents you say aren't in it for the right reasons?

Winston: The agents have always been the innovative guys pushing the envelope as far as getting guys contracts, setting a high-water standard. The things I worry about are the agents that don't do it for the right reasons – they're steering guys wrong, whether it's in a negotiation or in some other aspect of life. We've had to discipline guys because they're in business with business partners they shouldn't be with, financial guys. That concerns me because it's the overall welfare (of players), and I think a lot of guys for a lot of good reasons go to their agent for a lot of input in what they're going to do. The biggest thing that worries me about agents is them not working the way they should with us. I want to increase that transparency. I want them to feel like they're welcome and can make some kind of suggestions. But at the same time, they've got to keep doing what they've always done, and them bickering about where the (salary) cap is is not going to get anything done. They've got to look for innovative changes. They've got to look for different ways to get guys even more guaranteed money than they already are and I think that's got to be a consistent push for them.

USA TODAY Sports: One year from now, DeMaurice Smith will be up for reelection. The executive committee enforces the selection bylaws and sculpts that process. What is the level of confidence in De right now and the direction that things are headed from that standpoint?

Winston: That's something that this EC's going to have to tackle. I think when the time comes, and over the course of this next year as that comes to an expiration, that we're going to look into it, we're going to make the right decision and give our recommendation to the board.

USA TODAY Sports: You talk about not accepting the status quo, always trying to get better. Is it healthy then to bring in some challengers and listen to new ideas?

Winston: I don't want to get too far into the weeds with this one. I think first of all, these guys, the executive committee – especially a guy like Brian Waters, going back in the day a little bit – can provide us with some knowledge of how that process played out. But there's times for hearing a lot of voices, and there's also times for not hearing a lot of voices. Sometimes we say one voice, unity, and I think we mean that, too. The EC's going to get together, and we'll make some of those decisions down the road.

USA TODAY Sports: So, if you were reducing your presidency to a single point, what is it about?

Winston: I think it's going to be about my commitment to this organization, but it's also going to be about reforming some aspects and trying to lead from in front. Things are going to come up. We're going to have fights. And it's going to continue to carry that torch to the next person, whoever that may be. I've got to leave this union better than I found it. I think the players of the National Football League have always held that credo – they're going to leave the locker room better than they found it, they're going to leave the game better than they found it. I think it's on me now to leave this union better than I found it, and I've got to find ways to do that.